Equities on Tuesday moved both ways on the Lahore Stock Exchange and finally settled in green zone amid marginally improved trading turnover due to fresh buying in select scrips. The LSE-25 index gained 10.29 points and was closed at 3650.2 against 3639.91 of Monday while transaction volume was increased to 2.198 million shares compared with 2.019 million shares traded a day earlier.
The market was opened on a healthy sign and witnessed sharp rise following investors' interest who picked shares of their choice. Later, the market showed up and down ward moves because of the investors' cautious approach who adopted "buy on dip and sell on strength" policy to avert financial losses. National Bank, United Bank, Faysal Bank, Fauji Fertiliser, Fatima Fertiliser, OGDC, Sui Northern, Engro Foods, Lucky Cement and Fauji Cement helped market closure in positive zone.
However, Engro Corporation, Arif Habib Corporation, Thal Limited, Bank Alfalah, Askari Bank, Maple Leaf Cement, D G Khan Cement, Dewan Cement and Pak Electron remained under selling pressure. The advancing stocks were ahead of declining ones, as out of a total of 84 active issues, 20 companies registered gains, 18 went down while 46 companies remained unchanged at their previous closing.
National Bank gained Rs 1.08, Fauji Fertiliser was improved by 70-paisa, Sui Northern was appreciated by 67-paisa, while OGDC and United Bank were up by 54-paisa and 48-paisa respectively. Engro Corporation lost Rs 2.6, Arif Habib Corporation was declined by 71-pais, Thal Limited shed 55-paisa while Bank Alfalah and Askari Bank were down by 25-paisa and 23-paisa, respectively. Fauji Cement with trading of 544,000 shares topped the volume leaders while NIB Bank stayed as runner up with 391,500 shares.